According to United Nations reports, a worker dies from a work-related accident or disease every 15 seconds. Many more face long-term effects from accidents that impact their health, productivity and ability to provide for their families. Intellinium, a start-up based in France, was founded to improve worker safety by blending IoT technology with traditional personal protective equipment.

Intellinium’s smart shoes allow workers to send and receive messages handsfree, without the need for a separate smartphone. Alerts can be sent using Intellinium’s patented force sensor membrane built into the toe of the boot and connected to Sierra Wireless’ AirPrime® HL series cellular module. During an emergency, a worker can acknowledge receiving a message to evacuate by touching a toe to the sensor. Or he can quickly send a “mayday” alert if he’s injured. Built-in sensors detect falls or shocks, immediately notifying the employer or a colleague of the worker’s location to enable faster, more accurate response.

“Traditional personal protective equipment is passive—it can’t connect autonomously to remote places without a smartphone or react quickly enough during an emergency,” said Mathieu Destrian, CEO, Intellinium. “By leveraging Sierra Wireless IoT technologies, we were able to transform a simple work shoe into a smart device that can speed up response time to occupational accidents and is quickly gaining traction with international industrial companies.”

“The Internet of Things is creating opportunities to innovate across all facets of life,” said Marc Overton, senior vice president and general manager, IoT Services, Sierra Wireless. “With Sierra Wireless’ device-to-cloud solution, Intellinium was able to create a responsive, reliable and easy-to-use wearable that has the potential to improve conditions in the world’s harshest workplaces.”

Mobile World Congress Demonstration
Sierra Wireless and Intellinium will showcase an LPWA-connected work shoe at Mobile World Congress 2018 in Barcelona, Spain, Feb, 26 – Mar. 1. Visitors to stand #4A30 in the GSMA Innovation City, Hall 4, can see how the force sensor membrane triggered in the safety shoe sends an alert to a tablet monitored by the employer or colleagues, as well as a variety of feedback options that can be sent to the worker through vibrations in the shoe.

About Intellinium
Every 15 seconds, a worker dies from a work-related accident or disease. Work-related accidents and injuries cost EU €476 billion a year. Intellinium proposes the first smart and connected safety shoes that can save your workers’ life and reduce your costs. Since its inception in 2009, Intellinium has been developing technologies and smart PPE know-how with and for industrial companies and workers. Located in Aix-en-Provence (France), the company is currently in field trials with several industrial and utilities companies. Our revolutionary safety-as-a-service solution brings more safety, more telecom penetration and coverage, more battery autonomy, more intelligence, less weight and equipment, better usability compared to traditional worker electronic equipment, and goes even further by replacing most of them (for instance, man-down or alert button). While saving cost and bringing more performance to protect your worker, you also reduce your environmental footprint by reducing electronic waste. For more information, visit: https://intellinium.io/.

About Sierra Wireless
Sierra Wireless (NASDAQ: SWIR) (TSX: SW) is an IoT pioneer, empowering businesses and industries to transform and thrive in the connected economy. Customers Start with Sierra because we offer a device to cloud solution, comprised of embedded and networking solutions seamlessly integrated with our secure cloud and connectivity services. OEMs and enterprises worldwide rely on our expertise in delivering fully integrated solutions to reduce complexity, turn data into intelligence and get their connected products and services to market faster. Sierra Wireless has 1,400 employees globally and operates R&D centers in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.sierrawireless.com.

“Sierra Wireless” and "AirPrime" are registered trademarks of Sierra Wireless. Other product or service names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. These forward-looking statements relate to, among other things, plans and timing for the introduction or enhancement of our services and products, statements about future market conditions, supply conditions, channel and end customer demand conditions, revenues, gross margins, operating expenses, profits, and other expectations, intentions, and plans contained in this press release that are not historical fact. Our expectations regarding future revenues and earnings depend in part upon our ability to successfully develop, manufacture, and supply products that we do not produce today and that meet defined specifications. When used in this press release, the words "plan", "expect", "believe", and similar expressions generally identify forward-looking statements. These statements reflect our current expectations. They are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, changes in technology and changes in the wireless data communications market. In light of the many risks and uncertainties surrounding the wireless data communications market, you should understand that we cannot assure you that the forward-looking statements contained in this press release will be realized.